Brave New Words

Oh, hi there.

Hope you’ve been doing well. I’m sure all of you, the masses that religiously followed my first two posts, are wondering why I stopped updating? Was it just standard blog-fade (that’s a term that people use, right)? Did I somehow get a life? Did I finally realize that my blog was pretty boring? Was I in some terrible, crippling accident and only now—with the help of the most cutting-edge cybernetic technology money can buy—can I return to regular blogging?

Actually, all but one of those is true (I won’t tell you which one though). The big problem was the boring part. I know you, my droves of story-friends, are too polite to say it, but, yeah, it was boring. Ok, I agree, the writing style was quirky and sometimes hilarious, but the subject matter could be pretty dry, even for me. And let me tell you, blogs that bore their readers don’t last long, but blogs that bore their authors are doomed.

I’m here to hopefully rectify that situation. I’ve been spending the last few weeks thinking of a new focus that could reinvigorate this little abandoned blog of mine. I came up with several that I thought would be fun, but couldn’t bring myself to pick one. That’s when it hit me—why pick just one?

Going forward, Story Friend will be a weekly (or more, depending on my free time) blog with revolving columns, each with its own focus. Theoretically, the columns will cycle in a pattern, but more than likely a column will appear whenever I feel like writing on it. If a pattern emerges, it will probably be by accident.

What are these newfangled columns going to be? I’m glad you asked. Here is a rundown of some I had in mind. (New columns might arise in the future and some of these are sure to fall by the wayside if they get boring or they run their course.)

Re-fics: Short for “re-fictions,” this column will be re-imaginings of existing creative properties. I will be examining what makes these stories good, what could have been better, and how I would have written them differently. What if the Harry Potter books were set in the US? What would the X-Men be like if they focused more on interpersonal politics? What if the Star Wars prequels were good? These questions and more will be answered here.

Spirits of the Staircase: This will be a short column in which I write about real life situations in which I seize the privilege of hindsight to examine how things could have gone better. There’s one catch though—I’ll be drinking a good share of spirits before I write this column. Should be interesting, might not be comprehensible.

Lone Wolf Theatre: I’ve been playing role-playing games since middle school. RPGs with pens and paper and table-tops, not the video game kind. Recently though, my mind was blown by this new wave of RPGs called story games which are less run-around-and-kill-dragons and more let’s-collaborate-on-an- improvisational-story. As you might imagine, this is relevant to my interests. The problem is that, despite trying for the last few months, I can’t get any of my friends to try these new games out with me. To rectify this, I’m going to do what I do best—play with myself. Wait, that came out wrong. Anyway, in this column, I’ll be recapping the stories that I create with the rules of one of these games. These will probably be broken up over several weeks. Serial fiction, awesome!

Review-Friend: Yeah, this has the weakest title so far. I’m still working on it. Anyway, this column will be pretty straightforward—I’ll give you some unsolicited opinions on media. Lately, I’ve been trying to go to the theatres with my stunning romantic partner every week, so expect lots of movies. I wouldn’t be surprised if older stuff found its way in there too.

And that’s what I have so far. Sound good? I can’t wait to start these. Do you see any that might be particularly fun to read? Let me know by commenting below.

Next week, we’ll kick things off with Lone Wolf Theatre, where I will recap what happens in my first actual game of Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World.